It was delivered today!

I'm holding a copy of the 2012 Cloth Paper Scissors calendar,

with my artwork on the November page!



I'm just gonna sit here and enjoy this moment for a little bit longer.

There's this photo editing tool that turns a photograph into an oil  painting

with just a mouse click.

But I didn't use that tool in this picture of the clouds I took on Sunday:

The sky really did look like an oil painting.

Reminded me of paintings by Rene Magritte, an artist I've always liked.

Even wrote a college paper about him back in the day:

Painting by Rene Magritte

Totally cool Magritte moment.

My Grandma has been on my mind and heart all day.

She passed away a year ago today.

I think about her a lot.

For months and months we've been preparing for this.  Lots of activity in our studios.  Beading, hammering, painting, drilling...and watching the progress of the renovation of downtown Wausau, WI, where my friend Jody and I will be sharing a vendor space at Market Place Thursdays.  Lots of effort and funds went into this makeover, and the new space was revealed this week.  There's an outdoor stage for live entertainment, paved walkways, fresh landscaping, and very recently installed sod.

We've been scrambling to get last-minute things made, priced, and packaged for the first of the twelve Thursdays we'll be selling our jewelry and art at the market.  Yesterday, fighting the rain, we did a trial run with the tent and displays, making sure we had enough table space.  We got the vehicles packed up and were ready for our designated 7:30 AM set up time today.

I mentioned that it all seemed to go smoothly, and couldn't think of a thing to be stressed about.


Mock Set-Up, Jody's Garage

I jinxed us.

The call came in the late afternoon.  Because of the ridiculous amount of rain we've gotten in the last week, the new sod in our area of the square was determined to be too wet to use.  We (and a bunch of others) were being bumped this week.  The bright side is that we didn't get around to making the baked goods we had planned on selling, or we would have been stuffing our faces with it.

So today, despite the rain, we checked out the other vendors at the market and found where our spot will be for the summer.  While we were downtown, we stopped in the brand new bead store.  Um, it's research.

The day ended doing one of my very favorite things.  Sitting in the cozy chairs at Barnes & Noble, reading magazines, seeing what's new in art and jewelry books.  Research.

Jody, the other Magazine Queen

Sitting on my porch when I got home was a 19-pound box of beads and baubles that a few of us ordered last week.

We need help.

Oh Lilacs, I wish the scent of your blooms

didn't give me such a headache.

I'll just keep you outside on the porch.

Then this little guy can enjoy you too.

I love my father as the stars -

he's a bright shining example

and a happy twinkling in my heart. 

~Terri Guillemets

Dad in 2008
Annual Family Spring Break Trip
Punta Mita, Mexico


Quote from:

http://www.quotegarden.com

More than once I've been told 

that someday I'll be a crazy old lady living with a bunch of cats.

Today I saw my future flash before my eyes.

Walking into Wal-Mart was an old lady with pink-ish tinted hair,

carrying a tote bag with cat pictures on it.

Well she looked happy at least.

I wasn't going to post this picture, but it cracks me up too much not to.

We've talked about going to the rodeo for a long time,

and we finally went last weekend.

Jody & me

I love cowboys.

My husband asked me to stop talking about the cowboys.

He asked nicely.

It was funny.

Been hanging out with my nephews as the six year-old recuperates from a last-minute tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy.  

We're taking it easy.  Working on Star Wars sticker books, watching cartoons and decorating stuff with paint pens.

Trying not to talk much.  Getting pretty good at our version of sign language.  Goes something like this:

One finger = popsicle
Two fingers = orange sherbet
Three fingers = rainbow sherbet
Four fingers =  cake batter ice cream
Five fingers = vanilla & chocolate swirl

The first day was mainly thumbs-down; yesterday was medium.  Hoping today is thumbs-up all the way!



June 14, 2003
Rib Mountain State Park, Wausau WI



We had an enormous snowball bush in the corner of the yard where I grew up.

Every year when the bush was in full bloom, it displayed fluffy clusters of soft white flowers.

So I was pleasantly surprised the first Spring after we bought the house we live in,

when the enormous bush in the corner of the yard sprouted clusters of soft white snowballs!

Pompeii & Snowball Bush, June 2011

Years ago, the snowball bush was so badly overgrown

that the previous owners pulled it out of the ground, roots and all.

But it grew back.

So I guess it was just meant to be here. 

Aaah, my favorite kind of snowball...the blooming kind.

The record-breaking high temps we had earlier this week
were especially HOT for this little black dog....


Nothing a cold-water-soaked bandana around the neck

and a dip in the pool can't cure.

Sweet Peach Rooibos Sun Tea

Nummy nummy in my tummy.

Today was the kind of day I wait for all year.

Sunlit. Slightly humid.

Carefree breeze drifts by, just as I think it's getting a little warm.

The kind of day most people say is too hot.

I wheeled my rolling carts full of art supplies out to the porch.

Stayed there til the sun went down. 

A day like today...very much worth the long wait.

As kids, my sister and I scrutinized the colors in a box of crayons
and picked our favorites.
My very favorite color was always magenta.  Still is.

 I think color psychology is really interesting.  How color influences mood, behavior, image, even what your favorite color says about you...
I'm into that kind of stuff. 
So for kicks, I googled "meaning of magenta" to see what my favorite color signifies.

Turns out that magenta is the color of the free spirit.  It influences creativity.  It represents kindness and love, harmony and balance. 
Magenta is the color of non-conformists; it does not like to be confined or contained.

Magenta makes me happy.



I've been thinking there's not enough magenta in my life.

I'm working on that.

Got me two new magenta summer tops and magenta toenail polish.

Stocked up on magenta beads and acrylic paint. 

Started paying more attention to magenta. 

My two youngest nephews even got in on the magenta action.

Especially when I offered them a quarter for each magenta thing they found.



What does your favorite color say about you?

"My dog is usually pleased with what I do,

because she is not infected with the concept of what I 'should' be doing."

- Lonzo Idolswine

We had barely stepped out of the truck at our cabin

when we heard dry leaves rustling, and then up popped this newborn fawn.

It napped, alone in a sunny spot right in the front yard, all afternoon.

We fretted about the fawn the whole time.

Maybe something happened to its mama.  It could be an orphan.

We tried to come up with a game plan.

Where can we buy a bottle for feeding?  Would it drink cow's milk?

Should we put a blanket over it at night, if the temperature got down to freezing?  Or would we just bring it inside?  Are we nuts?

Very much to our relief, mama returned at dusk for nursing and a bath.

Then she led her baby to the woods for the night.

And we all got a good night's sleep.

There is a fun  antique  junk  store  place near the Illinois/Wisconsin border.  I don't know the name of the business; it very possibly doesn't have a name.  Most of the time when I'm down in that area there isn't time to stop, or it's closed for the day.  But today I was passing through at a normal time.  The old wooden shop doors were wide open.  And I had time to putter.

This place's owner is an antique dealer/artist/junker that clearly loves being amongst the vintage and often obscure items in his jam-packed store and yard.  He loves to talk about it all.  Today he showed me a pendant made of fossilized dinosaur dung, albeit not for sale.  I did buy two of these "junk jars" filled with old pieces and parts perfect for mixed-media jewelry and collage.  And I spent the rest of my drive thinking about where in my house I could possibly set up that old portable confessional booth.

I have a confession.  The junk man and I, we're sort of kindred spirits.

My nephews are in their last weeks of the school year,

and my sister wanted to give a little gift to their teachers on the last day.

So each teacher will get a bracelet that was custom made for them, by Auntie!

The 5 year old chose the beads for his teacher's bracelet,

based solely on the notion that they look like the lightbulbs at the school.

Proving that inspiration can come from many sources.

Growing up, I remember my Mom telling of her Great Aunt Dorothy's beautiful flowers.

Her yard was full of flowers; she worked outside from morning until night.

That's Dorothy on the left.  To her left is her brother Oby, my Great Grandpa.  Then my Great Grandma Louise, and to her left is Dorothy's husband Art.  The occassion was both couples' 25th Anniversary in 1936.

What I remember most about these stories is that when Dorothy went somewhere,
she always brought along a bouquet she gathered from her garden.
That has always impressed me, and I've never forgotten it.

In fact, I'm carrying on the tradition.

We're having an Art Day at Jody' house today,
and I'm bringing along this bouquet gathered from my garden.

There's not a whole lot blooming yet, but it's a little something to say
"from my heart to yours". 

Oh, and from Pompeii's heart too.

From Blogger to Logger...

We finally decided what to do about the uprooted trees in our yard,

after a week of him-hawing about it. 

(Que the wood chipper)



It's kind of fun feeding a log through the chipper and watching it come out as mulch.

When the wagon is full, we spread the mulch under the trees along our property line.

One of the trees we lost was a big old one.  I'm not really a tree-hugger type, but I am a nature-lover type (well, I think there's a difference somehow).  Walking around the downed tree this week, deciding what to do with it, waiting for the insurance inspection, gave me the chance to look closer and appreciate its beauty - before I shoved it all into the chipper.

I'm fascinated by these bunches of baby pinecones that were growing all over the tree.

Look what I found nestled among some branches and pine needles,
right underneath the spot where the full weight of the tree top fell.

Aah, the lost possibilities.

Maybe that's what makes me sad.

I'm gonna go hug a tree now.

"It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. 

How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? 

For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. 

That is where the writer scores over his fellows:

he catches the changes of his mind on the hop."

-Vita Sackville-West

Photo taken in my garden, 2007

I found this quote while searching for something else online.

I just like it.

I snapped this picture from my porch this afternoon.

Today is a celebration of several things captured here...

• It is a fabulous Spring day. Finally. A whole day of sunshine!
• The farmers are finally working in the fields around our house!  It makes me feel close in spirit to my parents and "home" on the farm in Illinois.  See the tractor in the background?
• I'm loving spending creative time making jewelry to sell this summer at the farmer's market.
• I recently picked up three of these vintage wire hanger display thing-ies at a rummage sale for 50 cents each!
• I can smell the blooming daffodils in my garden as I type.
• I'm hoping you, too, take a little time today to smell the daffodils.

 

The other day I got this old tin full of buttons at an antique store for 5 bucks.  Not sure what I'm gonna do with the buttons yet.  Maybe make them into a bracelet.  Or use on purses I've been meaning to make, with the vintage fabric I've been meaning to use.  Or maybe nothing.  I just like looking at them.